I purchased my first car in 1974, mainly for traveling between my home in Delmar NY and college in Canton NY (St. Lawrence University). It was a 1971 Chevelle Malibu 350, 4 speed, blue with black interior, manual steering, manual brakes, no air conditioning. It was a great driver. I drove it for 11 years, went through 2 engines, but eventually it rusted out from the New York winters. I had a hard time parting with it in 1985, and have been looking for a similar car on and off ever since.
Well, last year (1999) I finally got serious about looking for another Chevelle. I really wanted a 4 speed convertible, between '69 and '72, but they are hard to find. The SS versions are the easiest to find, but they are expensive, and you have to worry about whether it's a clone or not (people take the regular Chevelles or Malibus and convert them to the SS model, charging the higher price.)
I decided that the SS model was a little too pricey and a little too souped-up for my taste, so I concentrated on a convertible Malibu. I cruised the local want-ads, chevelles.com, hemmings.com, and a host of other sites, but it was very hard to find what I was looking for. Then I happened to see an ad for a '71 350 Malibu in chevelles.com. It was in Vancouver BC, so I didn't think I would have a chance of buying it, but since it sounded similar to my old car, I thought it would be fun to check it out.
The owner, Brent, sent me some pictures, and I couldn't believe it. There was my old car. Same color, interior, engine, EVERYTHING! The only difference was that it had bucket seats, where my original car had a bench, and the engine had some added "goodies".
To make a long story short, I ended up getting the car and shipping it all the way from Delta BC to Scotia, NY. With the favorable Canadian exchange rate, it was really quite economical. After new brakes and a few front end repairs, I'm now re-living my youth. I have to thank Brent for taking such good care of the car. It turns out the two cars were built on the same assembly line, just 311 cars apart based on the VIN.
1974 Car VIN - 1363711522451
Recently, Dave Weir of the BC Chevelle club let me know that documentation on Canadian Chevelles was available through GM of Canada (905-644-4060). So I called them and gave them the VINs of the two cars. Below is a portion of what I received back from them. The new car originally had a 2bbl carburator and an engine block heater (for the cold Canadian winters I guess). The rear axle ratio is slighly different between the cars, and the M20 transmission seems to be fairly rare. The two cars were also built on the same day! Thanks to Dave for the info.
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